New owner revitalizing 75-year-old Shaker Square

Shaker Square, the octagonal shopping center where residents of Shaker Heights catch commuter trains to downtown Cleveland, celebrated its 75th anniversary in November with a new owner committed to overcoming the mistakes that left half of its 150,000 square feet vacant. A new mix of stores and restaurants and more active public spaces will make Shaker Square the “social intersection” it used to be, vowed Peter Rubin, president and CEO of the Coral Company, which acquired the center in late September for $7.5 million. The previous owner — Rosen Associates Development Inc. of Miami, with CenterPoint Properties of Beachwood, Ohio, as limited partner — had invested $20 million, most of it borrowed, to purchase the center in 1999 and redevelop it. Rosen installed a Joseph-Beth “mega-bookstore,” a Wild Oats supermarket, a Chico’s restaurant, and other retailers, hoping to attract customers from a broader area, said Reid Robbins, executive director of the nonprofit Shaker Square Area Development Corp. “Two things happened,” Robbins said. “They went too high-end, and the economy tanked. The first to close was Wild Oats. Second was Joseph-Beth. Chico’s is leaving in a few weeks.” Last December Rosen’s ownership ended when the development’s major lender, Key Bank Real Estate Capital, foreclosed on the one- and two-story center. Key Bank then considered purchase offers from 13 real estate firms and eventually sold the red brick center to Coral. The decision pleased many inhabitants of 29,000-population Shaker Heights, one of the premier American planned suburbs built between the First and Second World Wars, and nearby neighborhoods in Cleveland. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that some of Coral’s financing is low-interest loans, including $500,000 from the Cleveland Foundation. Brad Kowit, partner in the Cleveland area real estate firm Kowit & Passov, said Shaker Square reaped success when it contained local businesses, and it failed when it shifted to leasing “to national tenants at high rents.” The low purchase price paid by Coral should allow the Square to set rents low enough for local retailers to operate profitably, Kowit believes. Redesigning the green space Developed by O.P. and M.J. Van Sweringen in 1929 on a site just over the border in Cleveland, Shaker Square is made up of a dozen commercial buildings that wrap around an eight-sided, landscaped open space. Shaker Boulevard and a commuter line known as “the Rapid” run through its center. For three-quarters of a century, the green space remained unchanged. The Coral Company, based in Beachwood, Ohio, and known for urban and first-ring-suburban projects, has plans for “turning landscape gardens in each quadrant into outdoor museums by adding sculptures and artwork, possibly from local art schools and artists,” according to information posted at the company website, www.thecoralcompany.com/retailshakersquare.html. For concerts, plays, and informal enjoyment, an amphitheater with three levels of below-grade seating will be carved out in the southern half of the square. On the northern side of the Square, Rubin has proposed an ice skating rink bracketed by a “reading garden” shaded by high-canopy trees. Rubin said the static green space must become “an animated, exciting destination point.” In the 1920s the Square “may have been designed to emulate a New England village green,” Rubin said, but it must now evolve into “an urban gathering place for Clevelanders.” Robbins said of Rubin, who lives in Shaker Heights, “We’re really excited about this new guy. He’s local, and he seems to have a much shrewder approach to the property.” Robbins said a decision has been made that “Shaker Square should have two personalities — a neighborhood shopping center during the daytime, maybe up to 8 o’clock at night, and then a regional dining and entertainment center for a much bigger area. The last guys sort of forgot about the neighborhood center.” The only anchor tenant still operating is Shaker Square Cinemas, a five-screen movie theater. One new anchor expected to arrive in the spring of 2005 is a 26,400 sq. ft. Dave’s Supermarket, part of a local chain. Rosen intends to fill the remaining vacancies mainly with retailers, restaurants, and service businesses that are local or regional, though there will be some national franchises, such as a Curves for Women exercise studio. Most housing near the Square is at least 50 years old. Rubin would like to develop a 50- to 75-unit condominium building, One Shaker Square, that would include a 300-car garage to be used by condo owners and shoppers. u